Peyton Manning and Tom Brady renew fierce but friendly NFL rivalry

Don't be overly concerned about the exchange of geniality and effusive praise between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady last week. Just so it's clear, the longtime quarterback rivals did not speak to each other during the week, nor do they plan to Sunday until after their passing duel is finished.

But when the game between Manning's Broncos and Brady's Patriots is finished, they will seek each other out at Gillette Stadium for the obligatory exchange between starting quarterbacks.

Until then: Game on.

"It's very competitive on Sundays, don't get me wrong," Manning said. "We don't visit before the game. We don't talk during the week or anything like that. It's all business out there. But I have a ton of respect for him, the way he goes about his business."

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady
(Getty Images file)

For Manning-Brady XIII, the passing combatants did talk glowingly about each other this past week, but only through their media buddies.

"The league certainly missed him when he wasn't in there last year," Brady said in a conference call with the Denver media. "He's a phenomenal player, leader and quarterback, and it's great watching him play out there."

Manning wanted to make sure people understood how his generational adversary was there for him last season, when he missed all 16 games in his final year with the Indianapolis Colts because of a neck injury.

That injury turned out to be a blessing for the Broncos, for the neck led to his departure from Indy and arrival in Denver. He's now working the rust off — much as Brady did in 2009 when he returned from missing nearly a full year — and coming off his best performance of the season in last week's dismantling of Oakland.

"Tom has a guy he's used; I don't know what the word is, a body guy, a muscle therapist," Manning said. "He reached out and said, 'Whatever I can do to help.' I know he went through an injury before as well."

Yes, he did. For all Manning and Brady have in common — the stats, the records, the wins, the championships, the off-field endorsements (Manning is more visible in television commercials; Brady has gone the magazine model route) — their bond strengthened through setback.

Back-and-forth battles

Manning and Brady — or is that Brady and Manning? — have gone down with a major injury that forced them to essentially miss a full season at the height of their powers.

Brady went 16-0 and threw an NFL- record 50 touchdown passes in 2007, only to have his knee torn up in the first quarter of the first game of 2008.

As the Patriots' season went on without him, Brady became a recluse. Manning was able to get through, though, to offer the occasional hang-in-there.

"Yeah, he did," Brady said. "Certainly, it meant a lot to me. We've known each other for a long time. We have a lot of things in common, so it's nice when we're going through some things, to bounce an idea or two off one another."

Brady and his reconstructed knee returned in 2009, and though there were struggles in that first season back, he eventually earned his second league MVP award in 2010 and led the Patriots to his fifth Super Bowl appearance in 2011, whereupon he completed 15 straight passes in one stretch.

Did Brady's all-the-way comeback give Manning hope he could too?

"Totally, two different type of injuries," Manning said. "But he was supportive. He plays for another team and he reached out to me and said, 'Hey, anything I can do to help the rehab, miss seeing you out there.' When you're injured, and you're not out there playing, you kind of find out who's with you and who's not. Tom consistently throughout the season would check in with me. I appreciated that. It says a lot."

There was never a serious Manning-Brady debate, no talk of a Manning-Brady rivalry, until the 2003 season AFC championship game.

Manning by then had established himself as the game's best quarterback, or certainly its most prolific passer. He led the NFL with 4,267 passing yards in 2003 and ranked second with 29 TD passes against just 10 interceptions.

Brady, meanwhile, was viewed much like Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger of more recent NFL quarterback vintage — a nice quarterback on a great team. Brady threw for a pedestrian 2,843 yards in his first Super Bowl season of 2001, and around 3,600 yards in each of his next two championship years, 2003 and 2004.

A good quarterback. A clutch quarterback, to be sure. But entering that AFC championship game, Manning was in a class with no peer. He destroyed the Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs in the first two playoff rounds for eight touchdown passes, no interceptions, 681 yards and 79 points.

Against the Patriots, though, Manning's Colts went down 15-0 at halftime. He threw four interceptions while Brady delivered a steady, if unspectacular performance in victory.

In 2004, Manning set an NFL record with 49 touchdown passes and again torched the Broncos in a first-round playoff game, this time for 458 yards and 49 points. The next week, Brady threw for only 144 yards but he passed for one score and ran for another while Manning was left frustrated in a 20-3 Patriots win.

New chapters to be written

The rivalry began as the great quarterback (Manning) and the only quarterback who could beat him (Brady). As the rivalry grew, so did Brady as a passer — to the point that he became Manning's equal.

Coincidentally — or maybe not — Manning's team started beating Brady's Patriots.

In the two games they've played since Brady's knee injury, Manning won the first, 35-34 in 2009 and Brady won the second, 31-28 in 2010. The rivalry has long outgrown 20-3.

And now they meet for the first time since Manning's neck injury.

"We didn't have a great year in '09 when I did come back," Brady said. "It was a very up-and-down year for us as a team. Peyton has obviously worked very hard and the level that he plays at now, it really doesn't look like he missed any time, to tell you the truth."

Now all that needs to be said is what Manning and Brady say to each other after the game.

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